Obama Proposes Gun-Control Plan

President Obama on Wednesday put forward a plan to reduce gun-control violence that included a universal background check, banning military-style weapons, improving mental-health services, and allowing schools the opportunity to hire up to 1,000 school resource officers and counselors. “This is our first task as a society—keeping our children safe,” Obama said at a press conference attended by some of children who wrote him letters after the Newtown school massacre. “This is how we will be safe.” Acknowledging “this will be difficult,” Obama said he will “put everything I have into this.” Vice President Joe Biden, who headed up the task force that met with 229 special-interest groups, said the country has a “moral obligation” to act on gun violence at this time.